Lisa’s birthday was on the 29th and I wanted to do something special, as I always do, because I’m awesome. Being so close to NYC, I decided to surprise Lisa with the Broadway show Wicked, on Broadway. I’m not a big play guy, because you know, I’m a man. But, Lisa loves the arts, whatever that means. If I was going to take her to a show I figured I’d do it right and go to NYC. With her birthday being so close to New Year’s Eve we made a week of it and stayed in the city to watch the ball drop.
I didn’t let Lisa know what her birthday gift was and she was guessing every stop during our drive to NYC. She was able to whittle it down to NYC after passing Baltimore and guessed it was a show in NYC. When we arrived to the hotel Lisa and I got showered up and went looking for something to eat. Gotham Pizza was right across the street from our Hampton hotel so we stopped by there before our show. We had tickets to the 8pm show of Wicked at the Gershwin Theater. I was actually surprised that I enjoyed the show. Not enough to spend the money on tickets again, but it wasn’t a horrible experience. We had middle seats in row K. They were some of the best seats in the theater. The lead characters Elphaba, and Glinda were great. Glinda made it entertaining and was hysterical in several scenes of the show.
The next day we took the subway around Manhattan. For our first stop we went down to see the WTC memorial. We were able to see the outside memorial pools with plans to tour the inside. The line was about two hours long though. We decided to skip the inside and went looking for some lunch. We went to Stage Door Delicatessen since it was close to the WTC memorial. Lisa and I got a slice of pizza upstairs before jumping back on the subway uptown to Central Park. We transferred from the E train to the B train and got off at Cathedral Parkway, 110th Street station. We wanted to start at the North end and walk our way back to our hotel. We started in the North Woods working our way past The Pool, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir, The Belvedere Castle, and ended at Bow Bridge. We got a hot sausage and some toasted almonds from the street vendors in the park. By the time we made it to Bow Bridge we decided that Central Park is a whole lot longer than it appears in the movies and took the subway from 72nd street back down to 50th to our hotel with plans to finish the South end of the park the next day.
On the 31st we changed our minds and skipped the South end of Central Park. Instead we jumped on the subway to see Rockefeller Center, Radio City Music Hall, the Empire State Building, and Madison Square Garden (which is surprisingly round). We didn’t go up to any of the observation decks as, we’re poor and the lines are atrocious. If it’s a tourist attraction in NYC during the holidays and you don’t pay for expedited service, plan on standing in lines for hours to see anything. The WTC, Empire State building and Rockefeller Center all had lines wrapped around the buildings, and the buildings are huge. After our subway ride to our hotel we stopped at another pizza place, Famous Amadeus Pizza. There really is a pizza place on almost every corner in NYC. Out of the three, Famous Amadeus was the best.
Stay tuned to see how New Year’s Eve went.
I didn’t let Lisa know what her birthday gift was and she was guessing every stop during our drive to NYC. She was able to whittle it down to NYC after passing Baltimore and guessed it was a show in NYC. When we arrived to the hotel Lisa and I got showered up and went looking for something to eat. Gotham Pizza was right across the street from our Hampton hotel so we stopped by there before our show. We had tickets to the 8pm show of Wicked at the Gershwin Theater. I was actually surprised that I enjoyed the show. Not enough to spend the money on tickets again, but it wasn’t a horrible experience. We had middle seats in row K. They were some of the best seats in the theater. The lead characters Elphaba, and Glinda were great. Glinda made it entertaining and was hysterical in several scenes of the show.
The next day we took the subway around Manhattan. For our first stop we went down to see the WTC memorial. We were able to see the outside memorial pools with plans to tour the inside. The line was about two hours long though. We decided to skip the inside and went looking for some lunch. We went to Stage Door Delicatessen since it was close to the WTC memorial. Lisa and I got a slice of pizza upstairs before jumping back on the subway uptown to Central Park. We transferred from the E train to the B train and got off at Cathedral Parkway, 110th Street station. We wanted to start at the North end and walk our way back to our hotel. We started in the North Woods working our way past The Pool, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir, The Belvedere Castle, and ended at Bow Bridge. We got a hot sausage and some toasted almonds from the street vendors in the park. By the time we made it to Bow Bridge we decided that Central Park is a whole lot longer than it appears in the movies and took the subway from 72nd street back down to 50th to our hotel with plans to finish the South end of the park the next day.
On the 31st we changed our minds and skipped the South end of Central Park. Instead we jumped on the subway to see Rockefeller Center, Radio City Music Hall, the Empire State Building, and Madison Square Garden (which is surprisingly round). We didn’t go up to any of the observation decks as, we’re poor and the lines are atrocious. If it’s a tourist attraction in NYC during the holidays and you don’t pay for expedited service, plan on standing in lines for hours to see anything. The WTC, Empire State building and Rockefeller Center all had lines wrapped around the buildings, and the buildings are huge. After our subway ride to our hotel we stopped at another pizza place, Famous Amadeus Pizza. There really is a pizza place on almost every corner in NYC. Out of the three, Famous Amadeus was the best.
Stay tuned to see how New Year’s Eve went.